Chapter 5 - The Siege of Blackwood Manor"The perimeter wire has been breached," Sal said smoothly, pulling a second weapon from his desk drawer and tossing a smaller, lightweight pistol to me. "Do you know how to use that?"
I caught the gun, my hands shaking. "Point and pull?"
"Safety's off. Don't pull unless they come through that door," Sal instructed, pulling me toward a hidden door built into the mahogany bookshelf. "The compound's security grid was cut from the inside. They didn't trace our car, Elena. They had our GPS coordinates the moment we stepped into the house."
"The mole..." I gasped. "They tracked the laptop!"
"Exactly." Sal pressed a hidden button on the bookshelf. The wall slid open with a soft hiss, revealing a narrow, stone stairwell leading down into the dark. "This passage leads to an underground bunker beneath the gardens. Go down. Lock the door from the inside."
"What about you?!" I grabbed his arm, refusing to step into the dark. "I'm not leaving you, Sal!"
"I have to clear the main hall, Elena. If I don't draw their fire, they'll surround the perimeter and blow the entire mansion to hell," he argued, his hands coming up to frame my face. He leaned down, pressing his forehead against mine. "Listen to me. I've survived fifteen years in the shadows waiting for this night. I am not dying before I get to take you on a real date."
He leaned in and kissed me.
It was desperate, hard, and filled with a fierce passion that sent a shiver through my entire soul. It tasted like salt, rain, and promises.
When he pulled back, he nudged me into the secret passage. "Go. Now!"
He slammed the hidden bookshelf door shut, locking it from the outside.
"Sal!" I screamed, banging my fists against the hard wood, but the thick mechanism was silent.
Explosions and heavy automatic gunfire suddenly echoed through the walls from the floor below. The siege had begun.
I gripped the cold metal of the pistol in my right hand, took a deep breath, and began running down the dark stone stairs. The muffled sounds of violence echoed above me—shuttered glass, heavy boots, and the deadly roar of Sal fighting off an army of invaders alone.
I reached the bottom of the flight, coming out into a cold, concrete basement corridor lined with surveillance monitors.
I rushed over to the screen bank. The night-vision cameras showed chaotic scenes across the estate. Dozens of heavily armed men in black tactical gear were storming the grand foyer.
And in the center of the room stood Sal.
He moved like a lethal ghost, taking cover behind thick marble pillars, firing with terrifying precision, taking down three men in seconds. But there were too many. They were flanking him from the grand staircase.
On another monitor, my heart plummeted.
A man stepped into the mansion’s control room—a man wearing an expensive charcoal suit I knew very well.
It was Marcus Vance.
Sal's chief financial officer. The man who sat two offices down from me every single day. The man who brought me coffee every Monday morning.
Marcus was typing rapidly into a portable terminal, overriding the estate's automated defense turrets and unlocking the bunker doors.
He wasn't just Vincenzo's informant. He was the architect of this entire ambush.
May you like
And on his monitor screen, a red prompt was flashing: OVERRIDING VAULT DOOR: 60 SECONDS TO UNLOCK.
They weren't just coming for Sal. They were coming down here for the drive—and for me.
